The life of an average girl turned marathoner

Around the Bay training begins

Well, I’m officially training for my first 30k race! It feels pretty amazing to be upping the ante after running 3 half marathons.

January started off pretty rocky. I had a bronchial infection that started in late December and lasted for about 3 full weeks. I had no cardio capacity at all which meant very minimal running. When the infection began to subside, I started having a terrible pain in my left side rib area from all the coughing I had been doing and ended up in the emergency room after I ran 5k on January 8th that ended in excruciating pain. The diagnosis was muscular pain that was being aggravated by breathing heavier when I ran. I was advised not to run until there was no more pain.

That was not what I wanted to hear when training was officially beginning the next day! Following doctors orders I took a few days off. No running for the rest of the week in the hopes that I could run the first LSD of the training schedule that Sunday.

Sunday came. The group was running 13k. I didn’t want to push it, so I decided to set out with the ladies but keep it to 6k. When I turned off from the group at 3k to run back, I realized I was feeling pretty good so I decided to go a little further… and a little further. The further I went, the further I wanted to go, so I kept extending my route on the fly and in the end ran 11k that day! No cardio issues and minimal rib pain. I was back and feeling great!

Since then, training has been going pretty great. We’ve run in all sorts of weather. From -20c to +10c. Winter running doesn’t always look pretty on the outside, but it feels absolutely amazing on the inside! I’m doing pretty good getting most of the runs in. The LSD runs on Sundays have been ramping up pretty quickly which is another change from training for a half marathon. It’s only been 3 weeks and we’re already up to 16k!

So far all my body parts are feeling good. I’m trying to get better at remembering to stretch after a run. From what I’ve heard, as the runs get longer, the foam roller will become my new best friend.

February’s challenges:

Trying to get all my scheduled runs in during a five day trip to Miami

Meta

I started running in 2011 after losing 80 lbs in an effort to keep it off and get healthy. It didn't take long for me to realize the mental health benefits as well, and I quickly fell in love. Since then, a week hasn't gone by where I haven't laced up and gotten outside to enjoy the fresh air. But like everyone, every now and then I need a little motivation, and so there's always a goal race I'm running towards...